Everyone likes to be praised for their work and footballers are no different but the key thing is staying level-headed.

In my younger days, sometimes family and personal life came second to my ambition.

Like individuals in all walks of life, footballers want stability and we have families to look after.

When you've only got two days between games the recovery process is key.

I was always a big guy. You see my family - my brothers are the same size.

My arms are probably the same size as John Terry's legs.

Sometimes it's nice to be a bit different.

That's one reason fans take to me. They like the battle side of it. They look at me and think this guy shouldn't be on the pitch, he's just bulldozing his way through.

John Barnes was my idol growing up and he's the reason I've supported Liverpool. I play nothing like him, though!

My career and my stats, they all speak for itself so to say that I've got anything to prove to people, to say 'well, look, I can play, I'm not just a big guy,' that really is not my driving force in life.

There was a long period when I was younger where people always talked about my size and I was going 'but look, I can play, though, I can play' but you look at it, to have a career, 12-13 years, you've got to be more than just a brute.

As a footballer I know what I'm good at and I've now embraced it.

Liverpool are not used to playing a 16-and-a-half stone striker.

I've had three or four Scottish Premier League clubs contact me about going there and doing something. A couple of those clubs couldn't be further away from London so I'd have to seriously think about it, but it's nice to be sought after and nice to be wanted.

I'm going to say it out loud: I'm available for England selection if they serve chicken for pre-match.

My favourite chant is 'you're just a fat Eddie Murphy.' When I heard that I could not stop laughing. I would prefer a 'muscular Eddie Murphy.'

Beast Mode On is a state of mind. Beast Mode is about applying yourself and defying the limitations people put on you.

There ain't nobody going to run me out of nowhere.

People said I'm too big to play football.

Of course I know I am not the average footballer. But I'd be lying if I said I set out to be different, I didn't set out to go against the grain.

It used to get my back up because people would only say 'he does well for his size' and it's like, forget the size, I do well because I do well.

I have to admit I've dreamed of kicking the game-winning field goal in the Super Bowl many times. That's the fun thing about being a kicker, you never know when it's going to come down to your kick deciding the game.

NFL Europe helped me quite a bit. It was a situation where I came out of college and spent the first few months of my career over in Europe.

If you do something enough with purpose long enough, you're eventually going to get really good at it.